📰 Curated from Associated Press
📖 Read full article→Rescuers search for survivors after a 7.1 quake kills 18 in southwestern Japan - AP News
WorldBy Mari Yamaguchi7/29/20261 min read
Soldiers and emergency workers are combing through a badly damaged shopping mall and collapsed houses looking for trapped survivors Wednesday after a powerful earthquake that killed at least 18 people in southwestern Japan. A magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit a da…
✨ Key Highlights
- A magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Japan's southern main island of Kyushu on Tuesday, killing at least 18 people and leaving many others missing or injured across Kumamoto Prefecture.
- Soldiers and emergency workers searched through collapsed houses and a badly damaged shopping mall on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, hunting for survivors trapped in the rubble.
- The Aeon Mall in Kashima Town suffered heavy damage when its second floor collapsed, trapping people; roughly 3,000 customers had been evacuated to a parking lot before a gas explosion occurred in another part of the mall where some staff remained.
- A tsunami advisory was issued after the quake but was quickly lifted, according to officials and reports.
- Damage extended to nearby areas, with vehicles crushed under collapsed buildings in Yatsushiro and a chimney at Nippon Paper Industries' Yatsushiro factory left damaged.
- The disaster reminded many residents of the earthquake that struck the same region a decade earlier, which killed 50 people.
KUMAMOTO, Japan (AP) Soldiers and emergency workers combed through a badly damaged shopping mall and collapsed houses looking for trapped survivors Wednesday after a powerful earthquake that killed a